Monday, October 09, 2006 Absence of rooms, sensitivity challenges anti-traffic group
ALTHOUGH many have been arrested for the trafficking of women and children, there are concerns that still need to be addressed.
The lack of interview rooms for victims and gender sensitivity seminars for officers handling the cases are among the challenges facing advocates against the trafficking of women and children.
Lawyer Joan Saniel-Amit of the Children’s Legal Bureau and the Consortium Against Trafficking of Children and Women in Sexual Exploitation (Catchwise) said the group aims to minimize the number of trafficking cases, if not stop them.
“We get discouraged if the case is dismissed or if the victim retracts. We can’t blame the victims but this is where the challenge lies,” the lawyer said.
Catchwise is intensifying its information campaign in the Visayas and believes that prevention is the best strategy to minimize the problem.
In a conference last week, Catchwise, citing data on trafficked women, reported that most victims had been promised jobs in the cities but ended up working in nightclubs and massage parlors, where they give “extra services.”
In a press conference, a Catchwise officer said the challenges sometimes lie in the interview stage, where the victim is interrogated by a policeman or a social worker.
Joy Dacillo, an advocate based in Ormoc City, said that sometimes a trafficking case is not reported because the victim ends up becoming the one to blame for the predicament.
In some cases, the officer handling the case is not trained in gender sensitivity.
Dacillo further noted that victims are required to tell their stories over and over again to different persons when they report to the incident to the authorities.
Senior Insp. Milagros Soliano, of the Cebu Provincial Police Office, said many police stations do not have interview rooms where victims can tell their stories in private.
At least 19 municipalities do not have rooms for the Women’s Desk in their respective police stations.
She said policewomen assigned at the Women’s Desk should not be given other tasks so they can concentrate on their jobs.
The data showed that last January, at least 17 women and two minors were rescued in an operation in Cebu City.
From Tuguegarao, the girls were brought to Batangas City where they worked at a bar and then later on shipped to Cebu City to work at nightclubs.
They were initially offered jobs as waitresses but they ended up as dancers.
Last February, three minors from Barangay Ermita, Cebu City were brought to Iloilo City after they were promised jobs as models for t-shirts.
They ended up at a massage parlor that gives “extra services.”
In April, May and June, five women and ten minors from Barangay Pasil, Cebu City were brought to Metro Manila and Iloilo City after they were promised jobs as domestic helpers, models and waitresses.
They became dancers, massage parlor attendants and “guest relations officers.”
Last August, five minors from Camotes Island were brought to Laguna after they were promised jobs as helpers. They ended up as dancers.
At least seven persons in different parts of the country have been convicted for violating the law against trafficking of persons that was enacted three years ago.
From 2003 to 2005, a total of 186 cases have been filed in court against traffickers. Majority of these cases are either under preliminary investigation or pending in courts.
Republic Act 9208, or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003, defines trafficking in persons as the recruitment, transportation, transfer or harboring, or receipt of persons with or without the victim’s consent or knowledge.
Trafficking is done within or across national borders by means of threat or use of force, or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or of position, taking advantage of the vulnerability of the person. (AAG)
